Packard shutter box for using barrel lenses

[david_munson]

Not too long ago I saw an item on ebay that basically consisted of a large packard shutter mounted in a box assembly that would fit onto the front of a Deardorff 8x10. After mounting this apparatus on the front of the camera, you would then mount your board-mounted barrel lens on the front of that. Having accumulated a few old lenses now that I would like to play around with more, I'm interested in building something like this. Has anybody here built or even seen something like this? It doesn't seem like a terribly complicated sort of thing, but I'd like to get some feedback on the idea nonetheless. Thanks.

[wayne__]

I dont know what the box dealie is, though I'd be interested to

learn more about it. Keep your eye out for a locking iris diaphram.

With a Packard and one of these, you can quickly (seconds) change

lenses and you dont need them on boards. They arent easy to find but

well worth the search. You mount the diaphram in a board and simply

clamp it down around any lens, in shutter or not. Its amazing nobody

makes these anymore, they are so handy to have.

[dave_willison]

You might take a look at the lensboard adapters offered by SK Grimes:

 

<p>

 

http://www.skgrimes.com/boardadapters/index.htm

 

<p>

 

Is there any reason the "Packard Box" would mount in front of the

camera? I mounted a Packard behind the lensboard on a DIY 11x14. The

lensboard mounts like a normal lensboard and the Packard shutter rests

inside the bellows. The problem with this, of course, is that you need

to feed the shutter release tube through a hole in the lensboard. To

accomodate this hole the lensboard has to be slightly larger than the

shutter itself. Packards come in several sizes depending on the size

of the shutter opening. The one I mounted was 4.75 square with a

shutter opening of 2.5 inches. The shutter was placed behind a 6 inch

square lensboard. This left approximately 5/8" on either side of the

shutter to drill a hole for the tubing (The shutter tubing is 1/4 to

3/8 wide).

 

<p>

 

The box that you saw would be bulkier but would avoid the problem of

feeding the shutter release tube behind the lensboard. I hope this

helps.

 

<p>

 

.........................

[dick_streff1]

The Deardorff Packard Shutter "box" is necessary to allow the front

lens panel of the camera to rise and fall without interference. It is

part of the design of a Deardorff front panel, among others. If the

Packard was simply mounted behind the lensboard as is common on other

camera designs, it would limit the rise and fall. Of course the entire

front standard can also rise and fall also. Not as convenient as the

sliding panel, though.

 

<p>

 

I've made one for my Deardorff some time ago. Not much to it. If you

want a jpeg of it let me know. Otherwise you can see one in the

Deardorff brochure scans at:

 

<p>

 

http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~qtluong/photography/lf/deardorff/

deardorff4.jpeg

[david_munson]

Perhaps I wasn't really clear in my original post about the actual

purpose and use of the box assembly....let me see if I can explain it

a little better. As Dick pointed out, putting the packard shutter

behind the lensboard would interfere with the rise/fall movements on

a Deardorff. However, the main thinking behind this apparatus would

be using a single packard shutter for a variety of barrel lenses,

each one mounted on its own lensboard which would in turn be mounted

on the front of the "shutter box." This way, you don't have to ue a

different packard shutter for every barrel lens, just a different

lensboard. It seems to me that it would save quite a bit of time and

money if you're prone to fiddling around with barrel lenses like i

am.

[kcrisp]

David: I just dealt with this problem (cheaply) so here's what I

did. I wanted to use an APO nikkor process lens with my Deardorff.

So I screwed the lens into the lens board (mostly on the front of it)

using a flange. I then went to a Plastics store (we have those in

Los Angeles, I go to Solter Plastics on Pico in West LA). They cut

me a 5 1/2" square of opaque black plastic. They then cut a 2 3/4"

hole in the middle of the black plastic,and cut me a short length of

3" inside diameter tube. You glue the tube to the back of the

plastic square. The tube fits very nicely over the lens, holding the

black plastic with the hole right in front of the lens. Since the

packard shutter is also 5 1/2" square, I just use a couple stationary

store clips to sandwich it on the outside of the black plastic.

Total cost of the adapter was $14. Making a different one for a

different lens would be same process and cheap. If the other lense

has a smaller adapter you wouldn't need to do anything other than

come up with a spacer to use the 3" one with it. You can easily move

the packard shutter over to another adapter by taking off the clips.

Since the back of the shutter has a spongy rubber on it, it mates

very nicely with the adapter. The 3" tube is not available in black

plastic, only clear, but a ring of gaffers' tape takes care of that.

[struan_gray]

If you want more than one shutter speed, Lotus offer a

shutter-in-a-box which works in much the same way. See the

bottom of this page:

 

<p>

 

http://www.lotusviewcamera.at/shutters_e.html

 

<p>

 

Another option would be to make an adapter so you can use

Sinar lens boards and then use the Sinar DB setup. These days

it tends to be sold on it's automation and convenience, but you

don't *have* to use all its features and the older versions are

simpler and fairly cheap on the used market.

 

<p>

 

The only disadvantage of most of these systems is that they put

the lens out in front of the tilt and swing axes on the front

standard. If you use a lot of movements this can be a pain, since

you have to reframe to account for the lateral movement of the

lens - rather like when you use a tele.